Memorial Weekend ~ Living in the moment

For a weekend with out any real plans we sure made the most of it.

First off Abbie and I started out the weekend with going to see Sex and the City 2 , I am not a die hard SATC fan, but I have seen most of the series and I am a good friend! It was a good girls night out!
Saturday we had a birthday party for the Manrubia twins to go to. Lots of fun there, and lots of food!
So in real Memorial Day Weekend fashion we had to have a BBQ. My friend Kim said we should go to her place so off we went. This is where it gets fun....
The bbq she had borrowed from her dad was missing a part, so we made our own BBQ in the oven, it rocked. Probably helped that we used Tribal Moose BBQ sauce!
After dinner, we heard the kids yelling in the yard, upon taking a closer look we found out that the Pit Bull "Cam" had gotten out of his kennel. He had been watching the goats frolic in the yard and wanted in on the fun. Well him chasing the goats around the yard and into their pen put the kids in quite a frenzy. Karsen, Kim's daughter, had Cam in a head lock. (I was proud as she wrestled on our team for the last 2 years.) Once we got all the kids in the house with the door locked, we proceeded to get the dog off the goats and back in his kennel. What fun that was!
Long story short, the dog learned how to climb out and we had fix the problem. 2 hours, $50, one dead car battery, 100 zip ties, laughed so hard we almost peed our pants, we had the dog kennel fixed!


After all that hard work it was time for a bon fire and smores!

Caymus partied so hard he passed out by the fire.
Now that was a BBQ to talk about!


Sunday morning I decided we could either sit around the house and be lazy or we could drive to the beach! We had a great time playing and running in the water. The Oregon coast is such an amazing place and has such a calming affect! I love it and so do the kids!










As if that wasn't enough fun for the weekend I then decided we need to to head up to Silver Falls for some hiking in the rain! We made Abbie come along with us this time too! I packed up some lunch and off we went.
It was a little muddy, but a true Oregonian doesn't complain!






And last but not least we had a long, long discussion at dinner about the soldiers fighting for us right now. The sacrifice that they make for our freedom and how thankful we are to be AMERICANS.

What a girl does for 2 weeks in Texas!

Our team, taking our usual elevator photo! These are so much fun, I highly suggest trying it!
Back row - Gary - my Dad and boss, Paul - our fearless leader, Jane - my partner. Front row - Jeanne - Sulfur Uno, Barb - My mother and circus girl, Me - Superwoman.


Me and my mother! This was sunset from our room balcony.


Proof that I really did work while I was there. I am at one conference working on the food menu for the next conference.


A friend and customer of ours took us out on his boat. We only had one day off in the 2 weeks so this is how we spent it.
In the blue visor is Jane - my trusted co-worker and very dear friend. In the white shirt is Vic - the captin. In the blue is Paul - El Presidente.



On our way back in from our voyage at sea, we pulled up to a restaurant along the water called "Outriggers". Tied up the boat and enjoyed the best meal I think I have ever had in all my days!
Crawfish and Corona. I was in pure heaven. This truly was a blissful experience and I can not wait until the next time I get to enjoy it!


Me cracking away. I love food that you have to slow down to enjoy. I really don't mind getting my fingers dirty either!




This is what I do. I am the Events Director for Refining Community. That means that all the set up and organizing is up to me. I plan all the food, we eat a lot. Set up of the exhibit hall. Working with the hotel to make things on the surface look flawless and smooth!


Part of the exhibit hall at the Coking.com Conference.


Awards for industry achievement. Chevron and DeltaValve.


The girls! Me, Jane and Barb. We had a blast together!



We had a sponsored dinner and paddle wheel boat cruise one night and we had thought it would be fun to make it a pirate theme. So got all dressed up and did a little skit during the conference to try to drum up some enthusiasm and get folks to sign up.
Well lets just say that we accomplished our goal! Us girls had so much fun with this, I think we could start a trend!




We also had hospitality suites one night, and in one of them they had karaoke....ok for those of you who know me well would know I cant sing, I cant carry a tune at all. But I sure did have fun! I never sang alone......there is not enough tequila to make that happen, but I did sing in a group a few times!





So there you have it, 2 weeks in a nut shell. It was a great time and I really enjoyed it. But 2 weeks is a really long time to be away from my babies.

Wow how time flies!

Well I survived the 2 weeks of work down in Houston. It was crazy and hard work, but I had a blast as always. I am so lucky and thankful for the job I have and how wonderful the people I work with are! I will post a separate blog with all the fun we had!

I made it home to some very mommy sick kids! And I have to say I was really really missing them also!
So not to bore you with all the blah blah I know you all really want to see the pictures!
First off here is Easter! Can you say a little late? Yep I can. I was going to post this in route to Texas but my computer was having memory issues....wonder if it has dementia......oh well here they are now.


Dying the eggs. I just love how creative they are getting.


Caymus giving me his best Easter Bunny impression.


Kids hunting and showing off what the EB brought them. New clothes! They loved them so much!

Aumsville had an Easter egg hunt at the local park. It P.O.U.R.E.D down rain while the kids scrambled to find eggs. They had fun so it was worth it! And they got this cute pic with a soaking wet EB!

While I was gone it was nice out and the kids spent a lot of time riding bikes. So much so that Caymus finally learned how to ride! And let me tell you once he figured it out there was no stopping him! Its all he wants to do and he is not afraid to try anything!
Both kids are getting a bit big for the bikes they have and we really wanted to have bikes at both houses, specially sense now that's all Caymus wants to do!
So I bought them new bikes last weekend. They love them.

Tio Reid came down for a little visit this week and showed Caymus a thing to two about bike riding. It was so great to see him, it is never enough, but we will take what we can get from our crazy, adventure seeking brother/uncle! We LOVE you REID!


Two of my favorite people and my great friends. Abbie and Rob. We had a barbeque and bon fire last weekend. So much fun!


Caymus making Sushi. The rice is a little sticky!


Lucy gets a little more serious about it. Home made sushi, love it!


The kids were so sweet to me for mothers day. They both snuggled with me in bed for a long time and then went and made me breakfast......in bed. This is the first time that has EVER happened and they totally did it all on their own!


Water, nutella and peanut butter sandwich, orange and a vitamin C. Lucy was creative and used some cardboard for the tray. Then they cleaned up the house and tried to dress me....I stopped them there......
We had a great day, bike riding (shocker huh?), sat in the sun reading my book (Eat, Pray, Love), Walked to the local diner for lunch, then to the park, home again. We then cleaned up the house and the car.
All in all it was a WONDERFUL Mothers day. I know my purpose in life and that is to be the BEST mom to my kids.

So now we are all caught up....see how long this lasts!

Conference Update

So my computer is overloaded and has been frequently "vomiting" on me this last week. Probably the worst possible week to do this, but what can I say it wants a vacation!
So My mom updated her blog with some pictures and I thought it would just be easier to tag her blog for all to see!
So take a look at BeachBuns http://beachbuns.blogspot.com/
We are enjoying the day off between multiple conferences and look forward to one more full week ahead!
Peace out!

Update

I was going to blog about Easter and what ever else we have been up to, but my computer is out of disk space and I cant download my pictures. So that post will have to wait.
I am currently sitting on a shuttle bus on my way to the Portland Airport. I will in the great state of Texas for the next 2 weeks.
Next week we are hosting the CatCracking.com Conference and the SulfurUnit.com Conference in League City, then the following week we will be hosting the Coking.com Safety Seminar in Galveston. This means I will eat a ton, not sleep, work my ass off and hopefully have a little fun. This is the first time to do consecutive conferences and also the first for CatCracking and SulfurUnit. It should be an interesting 2 weeks.
I hear the weather is in the 80s and sunny, thank goodness because I am getting really sick of rain.
So as usual stay tuned for lots of exciting posts from me!
Yeeee Hawwww!

Spring Break at the Beach

We took the kids camping for the last weekend of spring break. Newport Oregon. Had lots of fun. Roasting marshmallows, playing in the park, eating tons of yummy food and watching movies.



Saturday we went to the aquarium and science center. The kids did a lot of "touching" in the touch tanks. I think that's their favorite part.






The biggest crab in the world, looking good next to my boy!
Then it was off to the beach! And man do those kids love it! They really enjoyed themselves. I love just watching them, run, yell, laugh, be free....breath.....

Girls Camping Trip

A camping we will go! My friend BJ asked me on Monday if I was interested in going on an overnighter camping trip with her and her daughter. I thought about for about 1.5 seconds. Heck YES!!!!
So we packed up the Tahoe and took off Wednesday afternoon. We both arrived about the same time and set up camp. She had rented a Yurt, the best thing for this time of year. It has 2 bunk beds and a stove inside. The weather was great, so lucky! The kids took off to explore leaving us girls to bask in the sun. AWWWW mama bliss!

Miss Lucy, the rock start! She is totally into "posing" for pictures these days.

Adventure Mo! This girl knows how to camp!


Moose, we made an exception for him, being a boy and all. So he had to be the man of the camp...



And this.......well I don't think I even need to say anything about this.......


These kids have been friends for 6 years now...do the math, Caymus is only 5. And they all got along great. No fighting, at all!


And the mamas of camp!


My dearest Ethel...BJ is really her name!


I know this one is blurry (taken by a 7 year old), but I had to show this. BJ was kind enough to allow me to cook, she knows how much I love it! Thanks BJ! Its just my element, and according to Caymus I am an awesome cook!


Dinner!!!

BJ built us a rocking campfire. Here are the kids chillin by the fire. They were doing skits and singing us songs. Very funny and sweet.


After smores the kids were ready and excited for bed. They decided that they all 3 wanted to sleep in the queen bed. So we laid out their sleeping bags and snuggled them all in. I warned them that if they started fighting we would separate them all. I did encourage them to make it work because they would stay much warmer if they did! They agreed. Amazingly enough they made it all night along in that bed!
We then started a fire in the fireplace and headed back out to our campfire. And it was the best campfire EVER!!! After about 10 min or so, BJ asked if I felt that....what...that....rain....I denied it. Then when the fire started making sizzling noises I agreed that indeed it was raining. We braved it for a little bit, but then it really started to let go. We put out our fire and headed back in. Fortunately we put almost everything back in the Yurt because it poured all night long.
In the morning it was so cold and we could not get a fire started so we decided to pack up and head out. When 2 woman have not had coffee and are wet and cold they can really pack up fast! We were on the road by 9am!

I promised the kids I would take them out to eat, selfishly because I really wanted to be waited on and wanted a lot of coffee fast!!! So we made it back to Salem by 10 and went to Shari's.




A great time was had by all. I think we will do it again soon. Really it was a glorified sleep over but that works for me!!!

And now I am getting all my laundry done so we can go to Newport tomorrow....camping!